Since I've been gone....

For some weird reason the Kelly Clarkson song, "Since You've Been Gone" just popped in my head so I figured I'd title this blog, "Since I've been gone" (from Walla Walla, and been back here). It's a stretch, I know, but just humor me. :)

There's have been incredible things happening already and classes haven't even started yet!! I got back last Thursday. By Saturday, Alice had come down from her hometown where she was with her family to stay with us for 2 days while we got to talk a LOT! It was so great because she's going through a really difficult time and transition that is really confusing. The awesome part is that she's so willing to change and seek for help, that she left her vacation early to come and have a mini get-away with us. We spent 2 days, Alice, Abbey and I, talking about how to spend time with the Lord. It's really confusing and hard to be alone with God and get something out of it if there's no direction to it and if you've never done it before. There's a "5 P" Bible study that we went through that talks about
1)Position Yourself (Get away from distractions to a place where you'll be able to focus and try and hear from the Lord.
2)Paraphrase/Pour over the passage (don't just read it once. Paraphrase what it's saying in your own words so it sticks in your mind and makes sense)
3)Pose questions (Ask yourself the hard questions about what it's saying, are we doing that in our own lives...etc)
4)Pull out the truths and promises (What does God say is true and He promises in that Scripture. These are things we can hold on to and know they're never going to change or leave).
5)Plan and put a date to obey (whatever we're learning can be applied to our lives so if there's a big decision that needs to be made or a change that has to take place, plan how we're going to do it and a date we're going to do it.)

It has been such a blessing to spend so much time with her. Even yesterday we got to spend all day talking. Please continue to pray for her. She's in such a cool spot of seeking the Lord and trusting Him with something that's really hard for her and affects a lot of other people.

LOVE YOU ALL!